HTC One X AT&T Smartphone Review

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Design and Exterior

The HTC One X has a unique design and features and enclosure made from a single piece of polycarbonate material. The particular device we looked at had a bright white enclosure, but a slate / grey color will also be offered.

The advantages of using a single piece of polycarbonate for the device’s enclosure is that there are not access panels or cutouts or metal screens / insets to come lose, scratch or get filled with dust or dirt. The material is also very lightweight, which contributes to the HTC One X’s overall lightness. Despite having a relatively large 4.7” screen and a beefy 1800mah battery, the One X weighs in at only 4.58 ounces.

Samsung Galaxy S 4G

4.2 ounces

Motorola Droid Razr

4.48 ounces

Nexus S

4.55 ounces

HTC One X

4.58 ounces

HTC Droid Incredible

4.6 ounces

Apple iPhone 4

4.8 ounces

Apple iPhone 4S

4.9 ounces

LG Spectrum

4.99 ounces

Samsung Droid Charge

5.04 ounces

Motorola Droid Razr Maxx

5.1 ounces

Motorola Droid Bionic

5.57 ounces

Motorola Photon 4G

5.6 ounces

HTC EVO 3D

6 ounces

HTC Thunderbolt

6.23 ounces

Going with an enclosure with no removable panels (save for a tiny micro-SIM slot cover); however, means the HTC One X is not user serviceable in any way. The phone’s storage cannot be expanded by installing an additional microSD card and the batter cannot be swapped. While the One X’s 16GB of internal storage should be adequate for most users and the 1800mah batter is more than capable of lasting a full day with moderate to heavy usage, not being able to swap the batter or install an additional SD card is a disappointment. If we’re going to ding Apple for note letting users swap batteries on the iPhone, we must ding HTC as well. Boo. Hiss.

The design aesthetic of the HTC One X is great though. The polycarbonate body feels somewhat slick, but at no point did we feel like we’d be drop the phone. And the size of the phone is very good, especially if you’ve got big hands. The overall dimensions of the One X are 5.3 x 2.75 x 0.37 inches, making it a little taller than a device like the Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket, but a bit thinner as well.

On the right side of the HTC One X, you’ll find the device’s volume rocker and on the left side is its micro-USB port for charging and syncing / connecting to a PC or other device.

On the top of the One X you’ll find the power button, a 1v 3.5mm headphone jack, a micro-SIM slot with an adjacent eject hole, and a noise cancelling microphone. On the bottom of the device, only the standard microphone is present.

The front of the phone is dominated by the screen and the back is home to a speaker grill with a beats Audio tag above it and the device’s 8MP camera with LED flash. We should point out that the glass covering the screen has nicely beveled edges, which feels good to the touch. Not having a rim around the glass definitely makes it easier to touch the far edges, which can be handy for some apps and games.

There are also a few embedded metal contacts on the back of the One X, which will interface with some accessories coming down the pipeline. The front of the phone also houses a 1.3MP camera, adjacent to the speaker grill. The grill is interesting in that it is drilled right out of the polycarbonate, so there isn’t a metal inset to get scratched or dented, like some other phones. We should also point out that there is a status LED indicator behind one of the holes which lights up when the phone’s battery is getting low or the phone is being charged.